Questionnaire For the Third Congress of the Party

Written: Written in February 1905
Published:
First published in 1926 in Lenin Miscellany, V.
Published according to the manuscript.
Source:Lenin
Collected Works,
Foreign Languages Publishing House,
1962,
Moscow,
Volume 8,
pages 200-201.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs and The Late Isidor Lasker
Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2003).
You may freely copy, distribute,
display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
Archive” as your source.
• README

Inview of the convocation of the Third Congress of the Party some comrades,
practical workers, have asked us to publish the following statement. It would be
most desirable at the forthcoming debate on the organisational question at the
Congress if the counsels and opinions of the greatest possible number of
comrades who have been working in Russia were most carefully considered and
discussed. Therefore, let every such person express his opinion and
submit his answers to the following questions. The Editorial Board of
Vperyod will collect them and refer them to the Congress, so that every
delegate will be able to benefit from the collective experience of the mass of
his comrades. The main questions requiring to be clarified with a view to the
redrafting of the Rules and the formulation of the resolutions of the Congress
are approximately as follows: (1) Place, time and duration of work? (2) Worked
as member of a committee, or committee body, if so, of which? Of factory
circle, etc.? (3) What was the membership of each of the committees or
committee branches, organising groups, etc., as far as you know it? How many
workers and how many intellectuals were there in each? (4) What was the normal
practice of co-optation to the committee from the periphery? Could you give the
average duration of work in the periphery? Are there any instances of
dissatisfaction arising from co-optation, etc.? In your answers a clear line
should be drawn between the periods before and after the Second
Congress. Detailed information on the period before the
Second Congress is particularly desirable. (5) How many Party
organisations,
groups, circles, etc., were there altogether in the area where
you worked? List each group, the number of members, functions, etc. (6) Were
there any groups (organisations, circles, etc.) that were not considered Party
groups, but were close to the Party? (7) How did the periphery (and the various
kinds of periphery circles) and the committee maintain contact? Did these forms
of contact satisfy the members? (8) Do you consider it possible and desirable
to intro duce the elective principle? If not, why not? If you do, then in what
manner? Please state explicitly to what groups the right of election ought to be
applied. (9) Do you consider the separation of the committees (groups, circles,
organisations, etc.) into committees of intellectuals and committees of workers
to be advisable? If not, why not? If you do, please indicate what form of
separation is desirable. (10) Did the committee elect a central, directing
group? If it did, how? How often was it controlled? Were you satisfied with its
inauguration? (11) Do you consider it useful and possible for the local
organisations to have written Rules? (12) Do you consider it useful to include
any regulations concerning the local organisations (committees and others) in
the Party Rules? If you do, please mention what regulations. (13) Do you
consider it desirable for the Party Rules to define the exact rights of the
Central Committee in the matter of including (and excluding) members from the
committees and other organisations? What should be the precise rights of the
Central Committee? (114) Is it desirable to protect the autonomy of the local
committees by introducing special regulations, and if so, what regulations? (15)
How often did the committee, or the group, circle, etc., of which you were a
member meet? If possible, list all the meetings held during the period of your
work. If not, give a rough estimate. Were there any inconveniences in the
holding of frequent meetings? What, in your experience, is the average number of
possible and necessary meetings per month and how large should the number of
participants be?